Something that continues to confuse me is the disconnect that surrounds FBS college football teams’ non-conference schedules.
The major issue lately has been the controversy surrounding playing FCS teams. On one side, you have the Big Ten Conference, which has banned playing FCS schools, while on the other is Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who argues that playing these games leads to a trickle-down effect of money that keeps FCS schools and Division II programs afloat. I’m of the mindset that playing perhaps one team on the FCS level each year is acceptable, especially when there are local ties such as when Georgia played Georgia Southern when the Eagles were still in the Southern Conference.
An unusual story yet one that needs mentioning is the decision between Wake Forest and North Carolina to play each other in non-conference games in 2019 and 2021 despite the fact that, you know, they’re both members of the ACC. The FBS level of football now has 128 teams, which means there are 126 other teams in the top classification alone that these teams could have chosen. I think this could set a precedent that could keep marquee matchups from happening in favor of playing games against fairly common opponents.
If going so far between games is an issue, why not get rid of divisions, like what SB Nation writers Jason Kirk and Bill Connelly suggested this summer?